She's just so soulless. She is the text book example of "cold hearted person who eventually warms up to friends" character with nothing to distinguish her from the other thousand characters that fit that description. SE just saw that people liked Cloud and Squall (and possibly Lenneth) and tried to replicate their success without picking up on the aspects of the earlier characters that made them stand out (Cloud's severe mental issues and the sheer intimacy we have with Squalls inner monologue). Adding to all that is she's just all so irritating in that first half of XIII

Which wouldn't be so bad if SE wasn't so convinced that they made the best thing since sliced bread---"Hey bridesmaid, love the beard! Give's me something to hang onto!!"- Lord Flasheart

Deny. I don't think she's the best character ever, but she's far from bad. I think that my least favourite character in the entire Final Fantasy series would be Squall. I found him to be absolutely terrible.

She's just so soulless. She is the text book example of "cold hearted person who eventually warms up to friends" character with nothing to distinguish her from the other thousand characters that fit that description. SE just saw that people liked Cloud and Squall (and possibly Lenneth) and tried to replicate their success without picking up on the aspects of the earlier characters that made them stand out (Cloud's severe mental issues and the sheer intimacy we have with Squalls inner monologue). Adding to all that is she's just all so irritating in that first half of XIII

Which wouldn't be so bad if SE wasn't so convinced that they made the best thing since sliced bread

This doesn't make her "soulless." You can call her unoriginal, but it's disingenuous to do so without looking for what makes her different from other examples of the same trope. Neither Squall or Cloud, or any character, is impervious to the popular tactic of a GameFAQs critic to sum something up in a sentence and say, "look how shallow it is because I did that."

Also, that last sentence is an obvious fallacy in judging a character, and undermines your criticism. It says, "I'm angered that Square Enix likes this character, so I'm going to be extra harsh."